Meanwhile, the Parthian king, Vologeses, when he heard of Corbulo's
achievements and of a foreign prince, Tigranes, having been set over Armenia,
though he longed at the same time to avenge the majesty of the Arsacids,
which had been insulted by the expulsion of his brother Tiridates, was,
on the other hand, drawn to different thoughts as he reflected on the greatness
of Rome, and felt reverence for a hitherto unbroken treaty. Naturally irresolute,
he was now hampered by a revolt of the Hyrcanians, a powerful tribe, and
by several wars arising out of it. Suddenly, as he was wavering, fresh
and further tidings of disgrace goaded him to action. Tigranes, quitting
Armenia, had ravaged the Adiabeni, a people on its border, too extensively
and continuously for mere plundering raids. The chief men of the tribes
were indignant at having fallen into such contempt that they were victims
to the inroads, not indeed of a Roman general, but of a daring hostage,
who for so many years had been numbered among slaves. Their anger was inflamed
by Monobazus, who ruled the Adiabeni, and repeatedly asked what protection
he was to seek and from what quarter- "Already," he said, "Armenia has
been given up, and its borders are being wrested from us, and unless the
Parthians help us, we shall find that subjection to Rome is lighter for
those who surrender than for the conquered." Tiridates too, exile as he
was from his kingdom, by his silence or very moderate complaints made the
deeper impression. "It is not," he urged, "by weak inaction that great
empires are held together; there must be the struggle of brave men in arms;
might is right with those who are at the summit of power. And though it
is the glory of a private house to keep its own, it is the glory of a king
to fight for the possessions of others."

Moved by these considerations Vologeses called a council, placed
Tiridates by his side, and began to speak as follows: "This man before
you, born from the same father as myself, having waived in my favour, on
the ground of age, the highest title of all, was established by me in the
possession of Armenia, which is accounted the third grade of power. As
for Media, Pacorus was already in possession of it. And I thought to myself
that I had duly arranged our family and home so as to guard against the
old feuds and rivalries of brothers. The Romans thwart me, and though they
have never with success to themselves disturbed the peace between us, they
are now again breaking it to their own destruction. I will not attempt
to deny one thing. It was by just dealing rather than by bloodshed, by
having a good cause rather than by arms, that I had wished to retain what
my ancestors had won. If I have sinned through irresolution, my valour
shall make amends for it. Assuredly your strength and renown are at their
height, and you have in addition the repute of obedience, which the greatest
of mortals must not despise, and which the gods highly
esteem."

As he spoke, he encircled Tiridates' brow with a diadem, and to
Moneses, a noble, he entrusted a highly efficient body of cavalry, which
was the king's customary escort, giving him also some auxiliaries from
the Adiabeni, and orders that Tigranes was to be driven out of Armenia.
He would himself abandon his feud with the Hyrcanians, and raise his own
national force in all its warlike strength by way of menace to the Roman
provinces.

When Corbulo had heard all this from messengers he could trust,
he sent two legions under Verulanus Severus and Vettius Bolanus to the
support of Tigranes, with secret instructions that they were to conduct
all their operations with deliberation rather than despatch, as he would
prefer to sustain rather than to make war. And indeed he had written to
the emperor that a general was wanted specially for the defence of Armenia,
and that Syria, threatened as it was by Vologeses, was in yet more imminent
peril. Meanwhile he posted his remaining legions on the bank of the Euphrates,
armed a hastily collected force of provincials, and occupied with troops
the enemy's approaches. And as the country was deficient in water, he established
forts to guard the wells, and concealed some of the streams with heaps
of sand.

While Corbulo was thus preparing for the defence of Syria, Moneses
rapidly pushed on his forces to anticipate the rumour of his advance, but
he did not any the more find Tigranes unaware of or unprepared for his
movement. He had, in fact, occupied Tigranocerta, a city strong from the
multitude of its defenders and the vastness of its fortifications. In addition,
the river Nicephorius, the breadth of which is far from contemptible, circled
a portion of its walls, and a wide fosse was drawn where they distrusted
the protection of the stream. There were some soldiers too, and supplies
previously provided. In the conveyance of these a few men had hurried on
too eagerly, and, having been surprised by a sudden attack from the enemy,
had inspired their comrades with rage rather than fear. But the Parthian
has not the daring in close combat needed for a successful siege. His thin
showers of arrows do not alarm men within walls, and only disappoint himself.
The Adiabeni, when they began to advance their scaling ladders and engines,
were easily driven back, and then cut down by a sally of our
men.

Corbulo, however, notwithstanding his successes thought he must
use his good fortune with moderation, and sent Vologeses a message of remonstrance
against the violence done to a Roman province, and the blockade of an allied
and friendly king and of Roman cohorts. "He had better give up the siege,
or he, Corbulo too would encamp in his territory, as on hostile ground."
Casperius, a centurion selected for this mission, had an interview with
the king at the town Nisibis, thirty-seven miles distant from Tigranocerta,
and with fearless spirit announced his message. With Vologeses it was an
old and deep conviction that he should shun the arms of Rome. Nor was the
present going smoothly with him. The seige was a failure; Tigranes was
safe with his troops and supplies; those who had undertaken the storming
of the place had been routed; legions had been sent into Armenia, and other
legions were ready to rush to the attack on behalf of Syria, while his
own cavalry was crippled by want of food. A host of locusts, suddenly appearing,
had devoured every blade of grass and every leaf. And so, hiding his fear
and presenting a more conciliatory attitude, he replied that he would send
envoys to the Roman emperor for the possession of Armenia and the conclusion
of a lasting peace. He ordered Moneses to leave Tigranocerta, while he
himself retired.

Many spoke highly of these results, as due to the king's alarm
and the threats of Corbulo, and as splendid successes. Others explained
them as a secret understanding that with the cessation of war on both sides
and the departure of Vologeses, Tigranes also was to quit Armenia. "Why,"
it was asked, "had the Roman army been withdrawn from Tigranocerta? Why
had they abandoned in peace what they had defended in war? Was it better
for them to have wintered on the confines of Cappadocia in hastily constructed
huts, than in the capital of a kingdom lately recovered? There had been,
in short, a suspension of arms, in order that Vologeses might fight some
other foe than Corbulo, and that Corbulo might not further risk the glory
he had earned in so many years. For, as I have related, he had asked for
a general exclusively for the defence of Armenia, and it was heard that
Caesennius Paetus was on his way. And indeed he had now arrived, and the
army was thus divided; the fourth and twelfth legions, with the fifth which
had lately been raised in Moesia and the auxiliaries from Pontus, Galatia
and Cappadocia, were under the command of Paetus, while the third, sixth,
and tenth legions and the old soldiery of Syria remained with Corbulo.
All else they were to share or divide between them according to circumstances.
But as Corbulo could not endure a rival, so Paetus, who would have been
sufficiently honoured by ranking second to him, disparaged the results
of the war, and said repeatedly that there had been no bloodshed or spoil,
that the sieges of cities were sieges only in name, and that he would soon
impose on the conquered tribute and laws and Roman administration, instead
of the empty shadow of a king.

About the same time the envoys of Vologeses, who had been sent,
as I have related, to the emperor, returned without success, and the Parthians
made open war. Nor did Paetus decline the challenge, but with two legions,
the 4th and 12th, the first of which was then commanded by Funisulanus
Vettonianus and the second by Calavius Sabinus, entered Armenia, with unlucky
omen. In the passage of the Euphrates, which they crossed by a bridge,
a horse which carried the consul's official emblems, took fright without
any apparent cause and fled to the rear. A victim, too, standing by some
of the winter-tents, which were being fortified, broke its way through
them, when the work was but half finished, and got clear out of the entrenchments.
Then again the soldiers' javelins gleamed with light, a prodigy the more
significant because the Parthian foe fights with missiles.

Paetus, however, despising omens, before he had yet thoroughly
fortified his winter-camp or provided for his corn supply, hurried his
army across Mount Taurus, for the recovery, as he gave out, of Tigranocerta
and the ravaging of the country which Corbulo had left untouched. Some
forts too were taken, and some glory as well as plunder had been secured,
if only he had enjoyed his glory modestly, and his plunder with vigilance.
While he was overrunning in tedious expeditions districts which could not
be held, the supplies which had been captured, were spoilt, and as winter
was now at hand, he led back his army and wrote a letter to the emperor,
as if the war was finished, in pompous language, but barren of
facts.

Meanwhile Corbulo occupied the bank of the Euphrates, which he
had never neglected, with troops at closer intervals. That he might have
no hindrance in throwing a bridge over it from the enemy's cavalry, which
was already scouring the adjoining plains with a formidable display, he
launched on the river some vessels of remarkable size, linked together
by beams, with towers rising from their decks, and with catapults and balistas
he drove off the barbarians. The stones and spears penetrated their host
at a range beyond the reach of the opposing volleys of arrows. The bridge
was then completed, and the hills facing us were occupied by our auxiliary
infantry, then, by the entrenchments of the legions, with such rapidity
and such a display of force that the Parthians, giving up their preparations
for the invasion of Syria, concentrated all their hopes on
Armenia.

Paetus, ignorant of the impending danger, was keeping the 5th legion
at a distance in Pontus; the rest he had weakened by indiscriminate furloughs,
till it was heard that Vologeses was approaching with a powerful force
bent on war. He summoned the 12th legion, and then was discovered the numerical
feebleness of the source from which he had hoped for the repute of an augmented
army. Yet even thus the camp might have been held, and the Parthian foe
baffled, by protracting the war, had Paetus stood firm either by his own
counsels or by those of others. But though military men had put him on
his guard against imminent disasters, still, not wishing to seem to need
the advice of others, he would fall back on some quite different and inferior
plan. So now, leaving his winter quarters, and exclaiming that not the
fosse or the rampart, but the men's bodies and weapons were given him for
facing the foe, he led out his legions, as if he meant to fight a battle.
Then, after losing a centurion and a few soldiers whom he had sent on in
advance to reconnoitre the enemy's forces, he returned in alarm. And, as
Vologeses had not pressed his advantage with much vigour, Paetus once again,
with vain confidence, posted 3000 chosen infantry on the adjacent ridge
of the taurus, in order to bar the king's passage. He also stationed some
Pannonian troopers, the flower of his cavalry, in a part of the plain.
His wife and son he removed to a fortress named Arsamosata, with a cohort
for their defence, thus dispersing the troops which, if kept together,
could easily have checked the desultory skirmishing of the enemy. He could,
it is said, scarcely be driven to confess to Corbulo how the enemy was
pressing him. Corbulo made no haste, that, when the dangers thickened,
the glory of the rescue might be enhanced. Yet he ordered 1000 men from
each of his three legions with 800 cavalry, and an equal number of infantry
to be in instant readiness.

Vologeses meanwhile, though he had heard that the roads were blocked
by Paetus, here with infantry, there with cavalry, did not alter his plan,
but drove off the latter by the menace of an attack, and crushed the legionaires,
only one centurion of whom, Tarquitius Crescens, dared to defend a tower
in which he was keeping guard. He had often sallied out, and cut to pieces
such of the barbarians as came close up to the walls, till he was overwhelmed
with volleys of firebrands. Every foot soldier still unwounded fled to
remote wilds, and those who were disabled, returned to the camp, exaggerating
in their terror the king's valour, and the warlike strength of his tribes,
everything in short, to the simple credulity of those who trembled with
like fear. Even the general did not struggle against his reverses. He had
indeed wholly abandoned all the duties of a soldier, and had again sent
an entreaty to Corbulo, that he would come with speed to save the standards
and eagles, and the name yet left to the unfortunate army; they meantime,
he said, would hold to their fidelity while life lasted.

Corbulo, perfectly fearless, left half his army in Syria to retain
the forts built on the Euphrates, and taking the nearest route, which also
was not deficient in supplies, marched through the country of Commagene,
then through Cappadocia, and thence into Armenia. Beside the other usual
accompaniments of war, his army was followed by a great number of camels
laden with corn, to keep off famine as well as the enemy. The first he
met of the defeated army was Paccius, a first-rank centurion, then many
of the soldiers, whom, when they pleaded various excuses for flight, he
advised to return to their standards and throw themselves on the mercy
of Paetus. "For himself," he said, "he had no forgiveness but for the
victorious."

As he spoke, he went up to his legions, cheering them and reminding
them of their past career, and pointing the way to new glory. "It was not
to villages or towns of Armenia, but to a Roman camp with two legions,
a worthy recompense for their efforts, that they were bound. If each common
soldier were to have bestowed on him by the emperor's hand the special
honour of a crown for a rescued citizen, how wonderfully great the glory,
when the numbers would be equal of those who had brought and of those had
received deliverance." Roused by these and like words into a common enthusiasm,
and some too were filled with an ardour peculiarly their own by the perils
of brothers and kinsfolk, they hurried on by day and night their uninterrupted
march.

All the more vigorously did Vologeses press the besieged, now attacking
the legions' entrenchments, and now again the fortress, which guarded those
whose years unfitted them for war. He advanced closer than is the Parthian
practice, seeking to lure the enemy to an engagement by such rashness.
They, however, could hardly be dragged out of their tents, and would merely
defend their lives, some held back by the general's order, others by their
own cowardice; they seemed to be awaiting Corbulo, and should they be overpowered
by force, they had before them the examples of Candium and Numantia. "Neither
the Samnites, Italian people as they were, nor the Carthaginians, the rivals
of the Roman empire, were, it seemed, equally formidable, and even the
men of old, with all their strength and glory, whenever fortune was adverse,
had taken thought for safety."

The general, although he was overcome by the despair of his army,
first wrote a letter to Vologeses, not a suppliant petition, but in a tone
of remonstrance against the doing of hostile acts on behalf of the Armenians,
who always had been under Roman dominion, or subject to a king chosen by
the emperor. Peace, he reminded him, was equally for the interest of both,
and it would be well for him not to look only at the present. He indeed
had advanced with the whole strength of his kingdom against two legions,
while the Romans had all the rest of the world with which to sustain the
war.

To this Vologeses replied nothing to the purpose, but merely that
he must wait for his brothers Pacorus and Tiridates, that the place and
time of their meeting had been fixed on as the occasion when they would
decide about Armenia, and that heaven had granted them a further honour,
well worthy of the Arsacids, the having to determine the fate of Roman
legions. Messengers were then despatched by Paetus and an interview requested
with the king, who ordered Vasaces, the commander of the cavalry, to go.
Thereupon Paetus dwelt on the memories of the Luculli and Pompeii, and
of all that the Caesars had done in the way of holding or giving away Armenia,
while Vasaces declared that we had the mere shadow of possession and of
bestowing, but the Parthians, the reality of power. After much arguing
on both sides, Monobazus of the Adiabeni was called the next day to be
a witness to the stipulations into which they had entered. It was agreed
that the legions should be released from the blockade, that all the troops
should quit Armenian territory, and that the forts and supplies should
be surrendered to the Parthians, and when all this had been completed,
Vologeses was to have full permission to send envoys to
Nero.

Meanwhile Paetus threw a bridge over the river Arsanias, which
flowed by the camp, apparently with the view of facilitating his march.
It was the Parthians, however, who had required this, as an evidence of
their victory; for the bridge was of use to them, while our men went a
different way. Rumour added that the legions had been passed under the
yoke, with other miserable disgraces, of which the Armenians had borrowed
imitations. For they not only entered our lines before the Roman army began
to retire, but also stood about the camp streets, recognizing and dragging
off slaves or beasts of burden which we had previously captured. They even
seized clothes and detained weapons, for the soldiers were utterly cowed
and gave up everything, so that no cause for fighting might arise. Vologeses
having piled up the arms and bodies of the slain in order to attest our
defeat, refrained from gazing on the fugitive legions. He sought a character
for moderation after he had glutted his pride. Seated himself on an elephant,
he crossed the river Arsanias, while those next to his person rushed through
it at the utmost speed of their horses; for a rumour had gained ground
that the bridge would give way, through the trickery of its builders. But
those who ventured to go on it found it to be firm and
trustworthy.

As for the besieged, it appeared that they had such an abundance
of corn that they fired the granaries, and Corbulo declared that the Parthians
on the other hand were in want of supplies, and would have abandoned the
siege from their fodder being all but exhausted, and that he was himself
only three days' march distant. He further stated that Paetus had guaranteed
by an oath, before the standards, in the presence of those whom the king
had sent to be witnesses, that no Roman was to enter Armenia until Nero's
reply arrived as to whether he assented to the peace. Though this may have
been invented to enhance our disgrace, yet about the rest of the story
there is no obscurity, that, in a single day Paetus traversed forty miles,
leaving his wounded behind him everywhere, and that the consternation of
the fugitives was as frightful as if they had turned their backs in battle.
Corbulo, as he met them with his forces on the bank of the Euphrates, did
not make such a display of his standards and arms as to shame them by the
contrast. His men, in their grief and pity for the lot of their comrades,
could not even refrain from tears. There was scarce any mutual salutation
for weeping. The spirit of a noble rivalry and the desire of glory, emotions
which stir men in success, had died away; pity alone survived, the more
strongly in the inferior ranks.

Then followed a short conversation between the generals. While
Corbulo complained that his efforts had been fruitless and that the war
might have been ended with the flight of the Parthians, Paetus replied
that for neither of them was anything lost, and urged that they should
reverse the eagles, and with their united forces invade Armenia, much weakened,
as it was, by the departure of Vologeses. Corbulo said that he had no such
instructions from the emperor; it was the peril of the legions which had
stirred him to leave his province, and, as there was uncertainty about
the designs of the Parthians, he should return to Syria, and, even as it
was, he must pray for fortune under her most favourable aspect in order
that the infantry, wearied out with long marches, might keep pace with
the enemy's untiring cavalry, certain to outstrip him on the plains, which
facilitated their movements. Paetus then went into winter quarters in Cappadocia.
Vologeses, however, sent a message to Corbulo, requiring him to remove
the fortresses on the further bank of the Euphrates, and to leave the river
to be, as formerly, the boundary between them. Corbulo also demanded the
evacuation of Armenia by the garrisons posted throughout it. At last the
king yielded, all the positions fortified by Corbulo beyond the Euphrates
were destroyed, and the Armenians too left without a
master.

At Rome meanwhile trophies for the Parthian war, and arches were
erected in the centre of the Capitoline hill; these had been decreed by
the Senate, while the war was yet undecided, and even now they were not
given up, appearances being consulted, in disregard of known facts. And
to hide his anxious fears about foreign affairs, Nero threw the people's
corn, which was so old as to be spoilt, into the Tiber, with the view of
keeping up a sense of security about the supplies. There was no addition
to the price, although about two hundred ships were destroyed in the very
harbour by a violent storm, and one hundred more, which had sailed up the
Tiber, by an accidental fire. Nero next appointed three ex-consuls, Lucius
Piso, Ducennius Geminus, and Pompeius Paulinus, to the management of the
public revenues, and inveighed at the same time against former emperors
whose heavy expenditure had exceeded their legitimate income. He himself,
he said, made the state an annual present of sixty million
sesterces.

A very demoralizing custom had at this time become rife, of fictitious
adoptions of children, on the eve of the elections or of the assignment
of the provinces, by a number of childless persons, who, after obtaining
along with real fathers praetorships and provinces, forthwith dismissed
from paternal control the sons whom they had adopted. An appeal was made
to the Senate under a keen sense of wrong. Parents pleaded natural rights
and the anxieties of nurture against fraudulent evasions and the brief
ceremony of adoption. "It was," they argued, "sufficient reward for the
childless to have influence and distinction, everything, in short, easy
and open to them, without a care and without a burden. For themselves,
they found that the promises held out by the laws, for which they had long
waited, were turned into mockery, when one who knew nothing of a parent's
solicitude or of the sorrows of bereavement could rise in a moment to the
level of a father's long deferred hopes."

On this, a decree of the Senate was passed that a fictitious adoption
should be of no avail in any department of the public service, or even
hold good for acquiring an inheritance.

Next came the prosecution of Claudius Timarchus of Crete, on such
charges as often fall on very influential provincials, whom immense wealth
has emboldened to the oppression of the weak. But one speech of his had
gone to the extremity of a gross insult to the Senate; for he had repeatedly
declared that it was in his power to decide whether the proconsuls who
had governed Crete should receive the thanks of the province. Paetus Thrasea,
turning the occasion to public advantage, after having stated his opinion
that the accused ought to be expelled from Crete, further spoke as
follows:-

"It is found by experience, Senators, that admirable laws and right
precedents among the good have their origin in the misdeeds of others.
Thus the license of advocates resulted in the Cincian bill; the corrupt
practices of candidates, in the Julian laws; the rapacity of magistrates,
in the Calpurnian enactments. For, in point of time, guilt comes before
punishment, and correction follows after delinquency. And therefore, to
meet the new insolence of provincials, let us adopt a measure worthy of
Roman good faith and resolution, whereby our allies may lose nothing of
our protection, while public opinion may cease to say of us, that the estimate
of a man's character is to found anywhere rather than in the judgment of
our citizens.

"Formerly, it was not only a praetor or a consul, but private persons
also, who were sent to inspect the provinces, and to report what they thought
about each man's loyalty. And nations were timidly sensitive to the opinion
of individuals. But now we court foreigners and flatter them, and just
as there is a vote of thanks at any one's pleasure, so even more eagerly
is a prosecution decided on. Well; let it be decided on, and let the provincials
retain the right of showing their power in this fashion, but as for false
praise which has been extorted by entreaties, let it be as much checked
as fraud or tyranny. More faults are often committed, while we are trying
to oblige than while we are giving offence. Nay, some virtues are actually
hated; inflexible strictness, for example, and a temper proof against partiality.
Consequently, our magistrates' early career is generally better than its
close, which deteriorates, when we are anxiously seeking votes, like candidates.
If such practices are stopped, our provinces will be ruled more equitably
and more steadily. For as the dread of a charge of extortion has been a
check to rapacity, so, by prohibiting the vote of thanks, will the pursuit
of popularity be restrained."

This opinion was hailed with great unanimity, but the Senate's
resolution could not be finally passed, as the consuls decided that there
had been no formal motion on the subject. Then, at the emperor's suggestion,
they decreed that no one was to propose to any council of our allies that
a vote of thanks ought to be given in the Senate to propraetors or proconsuls,
and that no one was to discharge such a mission.

During the same consulship a gymnasium was wholly consumed by a
stroke of lightning, and a statue of Nero within it was melted down to
a shapeless mass of bronze. An earthquake too demolished a large part of
Pompeii, a populous town in Campania. And one of the vestal virgins, Laelia,
died, and in her place was chosen Cornelia, of the family of the
Cossi.

During the consulship of Memmius Regulus and Verginius Rufus, Nero
welcomed with something more than mortal joy the birth of a daughter by
Poppaea, whom he called Augusta, the same title having also been given
to Poppaea. The place of her confinement was the colony of Antium, where
the emperor himself was born. Already had the Senate commended Poppaea's
safety to the gods, and had made vows in the State's name, which were repeated
again and again and duly discharged. To these was added a public thanksgiving,
and a temple was decreed to the goddess of fecundity, as well as games
and contests after the type of the ceremonies commemorative of Actium,
and golden images of the two Fortunes were to be set up on the throne of
Jupiter of the Capitol. Shows too of the circus were to be exhibited in
honour of the Claudian and Domitian families at Antium, like those at Bovillae
in commemoration of the Julii. Transient distinctions all of them, as within
four months the infant died. Again there was an outburst of flattery, men
voting the honours of deification, of a shrine, a temple, and a
priest.

The emperor, too, was as excessive in his grief as he had been
in his joy. It was observed that when all the Senate rushed out to Antium
to honour the recent birth, Thrasea was forbidden to go, and received with
fearless spirit an affront which foreboded his doom. Then followed, as
rumour says, an expression from the emperor, in which he boasted to Seneca
of his reconciliation with Thrasea, on which Seneca congratulated him.
And now henceforth the glory and the peril of these illustrious men grew
greater.

Meanwhile, in the beginning of spring, Parthian envoys brought
a message from king Vologeses, with a letter to the same effect. "He did
not," it was said, "repeat his former and frequent claims to the holding
of Armenia, since the gods who ruled the destinies of the most powerful
nations, had handed over its possession to the Parthians, not without disgrace
to Rome. Only lately, he had besieged Tigranes; afterwards, he let Paetus
and his legions depart in safety when he could have destroyed them. He
had tried force with a satisfactory result; he had also given clemency
a trial. Nor would Tiridates refuse a journey to Rome to receive the crown,
were he not detained at home by the duties of a sacred office. He was ready
to go to the emperor's image in the Roman headquarters, and there in the
presence of the legions inaugurate his reign."

As Paetus's despatch contradicted this letter from Vologeses and
implied that matters were unchanged, the centurion who had arrived with
the envoys was questioned as to the state of Armenia. He replied that all
the Romans had quitted it. Then was perceived the mockery of the barbarians
in petitioning for what they had wrested from us, and Nero consulted with
the chief men of the State whether they should accept a dangerous war or
a disgraceful peace. There was no hesitation about war. Corbulo, who had
known our soldiers and the enemy for so many years, was appointed to conduct
it, that there might be no more blunders through any other officer's incapacity;
for people were utterly disgusted with Paetus.

So the envoys were sent back without an answer, but with some presents,
in order to inspire a hope that Tiridates would not make the same request
in vain, if only he presented his petition in person. The administration
of Syria was intrusted to Caius Itius, and the military forces to Corbulo,
to which was added the fifteenth legion, under the leadership of Marius
Celsus, from Pannonia. Written orders were sent to the tetrarchs, the tributaries,
kings, prefects and procurators, and all the praetors who governed the
neighbouring provinces, to obey Corbulo's commands, as his powers were
enlarged on much the same scale as that which the Roman people had granted
to Cneius Pompeius on the eve of his war against the Pirates. When Paetus
returned and dreaded something worse, the emperor thought it enough to
reproach him with a jest, to the effect that he pardoned him at once, lest
one so ready to take fright might sink under prolonged
suspense.

Corbulo meantime transferred to Syria the fourth and twelfth legions,
which, from the loss of their bravest men and the panic of the remainder,
seemed quite unfit for battle, and led thence into Armenia the third and
sixth legions, troops in thorough efficiency, and trained by frequent and
successful service. And he added to his army the fifth legion, which, having
been quartered in Pontus, had known nothing of disaster, with men of the
fifteenth, lately brought up, and picked veterans from Illyricum and Egypt,
and all the allied cavalry and infantry, and the auxiliaries of the tributary
princes, which had been concentrated at Melitene, where he was preparing
to cross the Euphrates. Then, after the due lustration of his army, he
called them together for an harangue, and began with grand allusions to
the imperial auspices, and to his own achievements, while he attributed
their disasters to the incapacity of Paetus. He spoke with much impressiveness,
which in him, as a military man, was as good as eloquence.

He then pursued the route opened up in former days by Lucius Lucullus,
clearing away the obstructions of long years. Envoys who came to him from
Tiridates and Vologeses about peace, he did not repulse, but sent back
with them some centurions with a message anything but harsh. "Matters,"
he said, "have not yet gone so far as to require the extremity of war.
Many successes have fallen to the lot of Rome, some to that of Parthia,
as a warning against pride. Therefore, it is to the advantage of Tiridates
to accept as a gift a kingdom yet unhurt by the ravages of war, and Vologeses
will better consult the welfare of the Parthian people by an alliance with
Rome than by mutual injuries. I know how much there is of internal discord,
and over what untamably fierce tribes he reigns. My emperor, on the other
hand, has undisturbed peace all around him, and this is his only
war."

In an instant Corbulo backed up his advice by a menacing attitude.
He drove from their possessions the nobles of Armenia, who had been the
first to revolt from us, destroyed their fortresses, and spread equal panic
throughout the plain and the hill country, among the strong and among the
weak.

Against the name of Corbulo no rage, nothing of the hatred of an
enemy, was felt by the barbarians, and they therefore thought his advice
trustworthy. Consequently Vologeses was not implacable to the uttermost,
and he even asked a truce for some divisions of his kingdom. Tiridates
demanded a place and a day for an interview. The time was to be soon, the
place that in which Paetus and his legions had been lately besieged, for
this was chosen by the barbarians in remembrance for their more prosperous
fortune. Corbulo did not refuse, resolved that a widely different issue
should enhance his renown. Nor did the disgrace of Paetus trouble him,
as was clearly proved by the fact that he commanded Paetus' son, who was
a tribune, to take some companies with him and cover up the relics of that
ill-starred battle-field. On the day appointed, Tiberius Alexander, a distinguished
Roman knight, sent to assist in the campaign, and Vinianus Annius, Corbulo's
son-in-law, who, though not yet of a senator's age, had the command of
the fifth legion as "legatus," entered the camp of Tiridates, by way of
compliment to him, and to reassure him against treachery by so valuable
a pledge. Each then took with him twenty horsemen. The king, seeing Corbulo,
was the first to dismount, and Corbulo hesitated not a moment, but both
on foot joined their right hands.

Then the Roman commended the young prince for abandoning rash courses,
and adopting a safe and expedient policy. Tiridates first dwelt much on
the nobility of his race, but went on to speak in a tone of moderation.
He would go to Rome, and bring the emperor a new glory, a suppliant Arsacid,
while Parthia was prosperous. It was then agreed that Tiridates should
lay down his royal crown before Caesar's image, and resume it only from
the hand of Nero. The interview then ended with a kiss. After an interval
of a few days there was a grand display on both sides; on the one, cavalry
ranged in squadrons with their national ensigns; on the other, stood the
columns of our legions with glittering eagles and standards and images
of deities, after the appearance of a temple. In the midst, on a tribunal,
was a chair of state, and on the chair a statue of Nero. To this Tiridates
advanced, and having slain the customary victims, he removed the crown
from his head, and set it at the foot of the statue; whereupon all felt
a deep thrill of emotion, rendered the more intense by the sight which
yet lingered before their eyes, of the slaughter or siege of Roman armies.
"But now," they thought, "the calamity is reversed; Tiridates is about
to go, a spectacle to the world, little better than a
prisoner."

To military glory Corbulo added courtesy and hospitality. When
the king continually asked the reason of whatever he noticed which was
new to him, the announcements, for example, by a centurion of the beginnings
of each watch, the dismissal of the guests by the sound of a trumpet, and
the lighting by a torch from beneath of an altar in front of the headquarters,
Corbulo, by exaggerating everything, filled him with admiration of our
ancient system. Next day Tiridates begged for time which, as he was about
to enter on so long a journey, might suffice for a previous visit to his
brothers and his mother. Meanwhile he gave up his daughter as a hostage,
and prepared a suppliant letter to Nero.

He then departed, and found Pacorus in Media, and Vologeses at
Ecbatana, who was by no means unconcerned for his brother. In fact, Vologeses
had entreated Corbulo by special messengers, that Tiridates might not have
to endure any badge of slavery, or have to deliver up his sword, or be
debarred the honour of embracing the governors of the provinces, or have
to present himself at their doors, and that he might be treated at Rome
with as much respect as the consuls. Accustomed, forsooth, to foreign arrogance,
he had no knowledge of us, who value the reality of empire and disregard
its empty show.

That same year the emperor put into possession of the Latin franchise
the tribes of the maritime Alps. To the Roman knights he assigned places
in the circus in front of the seats of the people, for up to that time
they used to enter in a promiscuous throng, as the Roscian law extended
only to fourteen rows in the theatre. The same year witnessed shows of
gladiators as magnificent as those of the past. Many ladies of distinction,
however, and senators, disgraced themselves by appearing in the
amphitheatre.

In the year of the consulship of Caius Laecanius and Marcus Licinius
a yet keener impulse urged Nero to show himself frequently on the public
stage. Hitherto he had sung in private houses or gardens, during the juvenile
games, but these he now despised, as being but little frequented, and on
too small a scale for so fine a voice. As, however, he did not venture
to make a beginning at Rome, he chose Neapolis, because it was a Greek
city. From this as his starting-point he might cross into Achaia, and there,
winning the well-known and sacred garlands of antiquity, evoke, with increased
fame, the enthusiasm of the citizens. Accordingly, a rabble of the townsfolk
was brought together, with those whom the excitement of such an event had
attracted from the neighbouring towns and colonies, and such as followed
in the emperor's train to pay him honour or for various objects. All these,
with some companies of soldiers, filled the theatre at
Neapolis.

There an incident occurred, which many thought unlucky, though
to the emperor it seemed due to the providence of auspicious deities. The
people who had been present, had quitted the theatre, and the empty building
then fell in without harm to anyone. Thereupon Nero in an elaborate ode
thanked the gods, celebrating the good luck which attended the late downfall,
and as he was on his way to cross the sea of Hadria, he rested awhile at
Beneventum, where a crowded gladiatorial show was being exhibited by Vatinius.
The man was one of the most conspicuously infamous sights in the imperial
court, bred, as he had been, in a shoemaker's shop, of a deformed person
and vulgar wit, originally introduced as a butt. After a time he grew so
powerful by accusing all the best men, that in influence, wealth, and ability
to injure, he was pre-eminent even in that bad company.

While Nero was frequently visiting the show, even amid his pleasures
there was no cessation to his crimes. For during the very same period Torquatus
Silanus was forced to die, because over and above his illustrious rank
as one of the Junian family he claimed to be the great-grandson of Augustus.
Accusers were ordered to charge him with prodigality in lavishing gifts,
and with having no hope but in revolution. They said further that he had
nobles about him for his letters, books, and accounts, titles all and rehearsals
of supreme power. Then the most intimate of his freedmen were put in chains
and torn from him, till, knowing the doom which impended, Torquatus divided
the arteries in his arms. A speech from Nero followed, as usual, which
stated that though he was guilty and with good reason distrusted his defence,
he would yet have lived, had he awaited the clemency of the
judge.

Soon afterwards, giving up Achaia for the present (his reasons
were not certainly known), he returned to Rome, there dwelling in his secret
imaginations on the provinces of the east, especially Egypt. Then having
declared in a public proclamation that his absence would not be long and
that all things in the State would remain unchanged and prosperous, he
visited the temple of the Capitol for advice about his departure. There
he adored the gods; then he entered also the temple of Vesta, and there
feeling a sudden trembling throughout his limbs, either from terror inspired
by the deity or because, from the remembrance of his crimes, he was never
free from fear, he relinquished his purpose, repeatedly saying that all
his plans were of less account than his love of his country. "He had seen
the sad countenances of the citizens, he heard their secret complainings
at the prospect of his entering on so long a journey, when they could not
bear so much as his brief excursions, accustomed as they were to cheer
themselves under mischances by the sight of the emperor. Hence, as in private
relationships the closest ties were the strongest, so the people of Rome
had the most powerful claims and must be obeyed in their wish to retain
him."

These and the like sentiments suited the people, who craved amusement,
and feared, always their chief anxiety, scarcity of corn, should he be
absent. The Senate and leading citizens were in doubt whether to regard
him as more terrible at a distance or among them. After a while, as is
the way with great terrors, they thought what happened the worst
alternative.

Nero, to win credit for himself of enjoying nothing so much as
the capital, prepared banquets in the public places, and used the whole
city, so to say, as his private house. Of these entertainments the most
famous for their notorious profligacy were those furnished by Tigellinus,
which I will describe as an illustration, that I may not have again and
again to narrate similar extravagance. He had a raft constructed on Agrippa's
lake, put the guests on board and set it in motion by other vessels towing
it. These vessels glittered with gold and ivory; the crews were arranged
according to age and experience in vice. Birds and beasts had been procured
from remote countries, and sea monsters from the ocean. On the margin of
the lake were set up brothels crowded with noble ladies, and on the opposite
bank were seen naked prostitutes with obscene gestures and movements. As
darkness approached, all the adjacent grove and surrounding buildings resounded
with song, and shone brilliantly with lights. Nero, who polluted himself
by every lawful or lawless indulgence, had not omitted a single abomination
which could heighten his depravity, till a few days afterwards he stooped
to marry himself to one of that filthy herd, by name Pythagoras, with all
the forms of regular wedlock. The bridal veil was put over the emperor;
people saw the witnesses of the ceremony, the wedding dower, the couch
and the nuptial torches; everything in a word was plainly visible, which,
even when a woman weds darkness hides.

A disaster followed, whether accidental or treacherously contrived
by the emperor, is uncertain, as authors have given both accounts, worse,
however, and more dreadful than any which have ever happened to this city
by the violence of fire. It had its beginning in that part of the circus
which adjoins the Palatine and Caelian hills, where, amid the shops containing
inflammable wares, the conflagration both broke out and instantly became
so fierce and so rapid from the wind that it seized in its grasp the entire
length of the circus. For here there were no houses fenced in by solid
masonry, or temples surrounded by walls, or any other obstacle to interpose
delay. The blaze in its fury ran first through the level portions of the
city, then rising to the hills, while it again devastated every place below
them, it outstripped all preventive measures; so rapid was the mischief
and so completely at its mercy the city, with those narrow winding passages
and irregular streets, which characterised old Rome. Added to this were
the wailings of terror-stricken women, the feebleness of age, the helpless
inexperience of childhood, the crowds who sought to save themselves or
others, dragging out the infirm or waiting for them, and by their hurry
in the one case, by their delay in the other, aggravating the confusion.
Often, while they looked behind them, they were intercepted by flames on
their side or in their face. Or if they reached a refuge close at hand,
when this too was seized by the fire, they found that, even places, which
they had imagined to be remote, were involved in the same calamity. At
last, doubting what they should avoid or whither betake themselves, they
crowded the streets or flung themselves down in the fields, while some
who had lost their all, even their very daily bread, and others out of
love for their kinsfolk, whom they had been unable to rescue, perished,
though escape was open to them. And no one dared to stop the mischief,
because of incessant menaces from a number of persons who forbade the extinguishing
of the flames, because again others openly hurled brands, and kept shouting
that there was one who gave them authority, either seeking to plunder more
freely, or obeying orders.

Nero at this time was at Antium, and did not return to Rome until
the fire approached his house, which he had built to connect the palace
with the gardens of Maecenas. It could not, however, be stopped from devouring
the palace, the house, and everything around it. However, to relieve the
people, driven out homeless as they were, he threw open to them the Campus
Martius and the public buildings of Agrippa, and even his own gardens,
and raised temporary structures to receive the destitute multitude. Supplies
of food were brought up from Ostia and the neighbouring towns, and the
price of corn was reduced to three sesterces a peck. These acts, though
popular, produced no effect, since a rumour had gone forth everywhere that,
at the very time when the city was in flames, the emperor appeared on a
private stage and sang of the destruction of Troy, comparing present misfortunes
with the calamities of antiquity.

At last, after five days, an end was put to the conflagration at
the foot of the Esquiline hill, by the destruction of all buildings on
a vast space, so that the violence of the fire was met by clear ground
and an open sky. But before people had laid aside their fears, the flames
returned, with no less fury this second time, and especially in the spacious
districts of the city. Consequently, though there was less loss of life,
the temples of the gods, and the porticoes which were devoted to enjoyment,
fell in a yet more widespread ruin. And to this conflagration there attached
the greater infamy because it broke out on the Aemilian property of Tigellinus,
and it seemed that Nero was aiming at the glory of founding a new city
and calling it by his name. Rome, indeed, is divided into fourteen districts,
four of which remained uninjured, three were levelled to the ground, while
in the other seven were left only a few shattered, half-burnt relics of
houses.

It would not be easy to enter into a computation of the private
mansions, the blocks of tenements, and of the temples, which were lost.
Those with the oldest ceremonial, as that dedicated by Servius Tullius
to Luna, the great altar and shrine raised by the Arcadian Evander to the
visibly appearing Hercules, the temple of Jupiter the Stayer, which was
vowed by Romulus, Numa's royal palace, and the sanctuary of Vesta, with
the tutelary deities of the Roman people, were burnt. So too were the riches
acquired by our many victories, various beauties of Greek art, then again
the ancient and genuine historical monuments of men of genius, and, notwithstanding
the striking splendour of the restored city, old men will remember many
things which could not be replaced. Some persons observed that the beginning
of this conflagration was on the 19th of July, the day on which the Senones
captured and fired Rome. Others have pushed a curious inquiry so far as
to reduce the interval between these two conflagrations into equal numbers
of years, months, and days.

Nero meanwhile availed himself of his country's desolation, and
erected a mansion in which the jewels and gold, long familiar objects,
quite vulgarised by our extravagance, were not so marvellous as the fields
and lakes, with woods on one side to resemble a wilderness, and, on the
other, open spaces and extensive views. The directors and contrivers of
the work were Severus and Celer, who had the genius and the audacity to
attempt by art even what nature had refused, and to fool away an emperor's
resources. They had actually undertaken to sink a navigable canal from
the lake Avernus to the mouths of the Tiber along a barren shore or through
the face of hills, where one meets with no moisture which could supply
water, except the Pomptine marshes. The rest of the country is broken rock
and perfectly dry. Even if it could be cut through, the labour would be
intolerable, and there would be no adequate result. Nero, however, with
his love of the impossible, endeavoured to dig through the nearest hills
to Avernus, and there still remain the traces of his disappointed
hope.

Of Rome meanwhile, so much as was left unoccupied by his mansion,
was not built up, as it had been after its burning by the Gauls, without
any regularity or in any fashion, but with rows of streets according to
measurement, with broad thoroughfares, with a restriction on the height
of houses, with open spaces, and the further addition of colonnades, as
a protection to the frontage of the blocks of tenements. These colonnades
Nero promised to erect at his own expense, and to hand over the open spaces,
when cleared of the debris, to the ground landlords. He also offered rewards
proportioned to each person's position and property, and prescribed a period
within which they were to obtain them on the completion of so many houses
or blocks of building. He fixed on the marshes of Ostia for the reception
of the rubbish, and arranged that the ships which had brought up corn by
the Tiber, should sail down the river with cargoes of this rubbish. The
buildings themselves, to a certain height, were to be solidly constructed,
without wooden beams, of stone from Gabii or Alba, that material being
impervious to fire. And to provide that the water which individual license
had illegally appropriated, might flow in greater abundance in several
places for the public use, officers were appointed, and everyone was to
have in the open court the means of stopping a fire. Every building, too,
was to be enclosed by its own proper wall, not by one common to others.
These changes which were liked for their utility, also added beauty to
the new city. Some, however, thought that its old arrangement had been
more conducive to health, inasmuch as the narrow streets with the elevation
of the roofs were not equally penetrated by the sun's heat, while now the
open space, unsheltered by any shade, was scorched by a fiercer
glow.

Such indeed were the precautions of human wisdom. The next thing
was to seek means of propitiating the gods, and recourse was had to the
Sibylline books, by the direction of which prayers were offered to Vulcanus,
Ceres, and Proserpina. Juno, too, was entreated by the matrons, first,
in the Capitol, then on the nearest part of the coast, whence water was
procured to sprinkle the fane and image of the goddess. And there were
sacred banquets and nightly vigils celebrated by married women. But all
human efforts, all the lavish gifts of the emperor, and the propitiations
of the gods, did not banish the sinister belief that the conflagration
was the result of an order. Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero
fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class
hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus,
from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during
the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus,
and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again
broke out not only in Judaea, the first source of the evil, but even in
Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world
find their centre and become popular. Accordingly, an arrest was first
made of all who pleaded guilty; then, upon their information, an immense
multitude was convicted, not so much of the crime of firing the city, as
of hatred against mankind. Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths.
Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished,
or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve
as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired.

Nero offered his gardens for the spectacle, and was exhibiting
a show in the circus, while he mingled with the people in the dress of
a charioteer or stood aloft on a car. Hence, even for criminals who deserved
extreme and exemplary punishment, there arose a feeling of compassion;
for it was not, as it seemed, for the public good, but to glut one man's
cruelty, that they were being destroyed.

Meanwhile Italy was thoroughly exhausted by contributions of money,
the provinces were ruined, as also the allied nations and the free states,
as they were called. Even the gods fell victims to the plunder; for the
temples in Rome were despoiled and the gold carried off, which, for a triumph
or a vow, the Roman people in every age had consecrated in their prosperity
or their alarm. Throughout Asia and Achaia not only votive gifts, but the
images of deities were seized, Acratus and Secundus Carinas having been
sent into those provinces. The first was a freedman ready for any wickedness;
the latter, as far as speech went, was thoroughly trained in Greek learning,
but he had not imbued his heart with sound principles. Seneca, it was said,
to avert from himself the obloquy of sacrilege, begged for the seclusion
of a remote rural retreat, and, when it was refused, feigning ill health,
as though he had a nervous ailment, would not quit his chamber. According
to some writers, poison was prepared for him at Nero's command by his own
freedman, whose name was Cleonicus. This Seneca avoided through the freedman's
disclosure, or his own apprehension, while he used to support life on the
very simple diet of wild fruits, with water from a running stream when
thirst prompted.

During the same time some gladiators in the town of Praeneste,
who attempted to break loose, were put down by a military guard stationed
on the spot to watch them, and the people, ever desirous and yet fearful
of change, began at once to talk of Spartacus, and of bygone calamities.
Soon afterwards, tidings of a naval disaster was received, but not from
war, for never had there been so profound a peace. Nero, however, had ordered
the fleet to return to Campania on a fixed day, without making any allowance
for the dangers of the sea. Consequently the pilots, in spite of the fury
of the waves, started from Formiae, and while they were struggling to double
the promontory of Misenum, they were dashed by a violent south-west wind
on the shores of Cumae, and lost, in all directions, a number of their
triremes with some smaller vessels.

At the close of the year people talked much about prodigies, presaging
impending evils. Never were lightning flashes more frequent, and a comet
too appeared, for which Nero always made propitiation with noble blood.
Human and other births with two heads were exposed to public view, or were
discovered in those sacrifices in which it is usual to immolate victims
in a pregnant condition. And in the district of Placentia, close to the
road, a calf was born with its head attached to its leg. Then followed
an explanation of the diviners, that another head was preparing for the
world, which however would be neither mighty nor hidden, as its growth
had been checked in the womb, and it had been born by the
wayside.

Silius Nerva and Atticus Vestinus then entered on the consulship,
and now a conspiracy was planned, and at once became formidable, for which
senators, knights, soldiers, even women, had given their names with eager
rivalry, out of hatred of Nero as well as a liking for Caius Piso. A descendant
of the Calpurnian house, and embracing in his connections through his father's
noble rank many illustrious families, Piso had a splendid reputation with
the people from his virtue or semblance of virtue. His eloquence he exercised
in the defence of fellow-citizens, his generosity towards friends, while
even for strangers he had a courteous address and demeanour. He had, too,
the fortuitous advantages of tall stature and a handsome face. But solidity
of character and moderation in pleasure were wholly alien to him. He indulged
in laxity, in display, and occasionally in excess. This suited the taste
of that numerous class who, when the attractions of vice are so powerful,
do not wish for strictness or special severity on the
throne.

The origin of the conspiracy was not in Piso's personal ambition.
But I could not easily narrate who first planned it, or whose prompting
inspired a scheme into which so many entered. That the leading spirits
were Subrius Flavus, tribune of a praetorian cohort, and Sulpicius Asper,
a centurion, was proved by the fearlessness of their death. Lucanus Annaeus,
too, and Plautius Lateranus, imported into it an intensely keen resentment.
Lucanus had the stimulus of personal motives, for Nero tried to disparage
the fame of his poems and, with the foolish vanity of a rival, had forbidden
him to publish them. As for Lateranus, a consul-elect, it was no wrong,
but love of the State which linked him with the others. Flavius Scaevinus
and Afranius Quintianus, on the other hand, both of senatorian rank, contrary
to what was expected of them, undertook the beginning of this daring crime.
Scaevinus, indeed, had enfeebled his mind by excess, and his life, accordingly,
was one of sleepy languor. Quintianus, infamous for his effeminate vice,
had been satirised by Nero in a lampoon, and was bent on avenging the
insult.

So, while they dropped hints among themselves or among their friends
about the emperor's crimes, the approaching end of empire, and the importance
of choosing some one to rescue the State in its distress, they associated
with them Tullius Senecio, Cervarius Proculus, Vulcatius Araricus, Julius
Augurinus, Munatius Gratus, Antonius Natalis, and Marcius Festus, all Roman
knights. Of these Senecio, one of those who was specially intimate with
Nero, still kept up a show of friendship, and had consequently to struggle
with all the more dangers. Natalis shared with Piso all his secret plans.
The rest built their hopes on revolution. Besides Subrius and Sulpicius,
whom I have already mentioned, they invited the aid of military strength,
of Gavius Silvanus and Statius Proximus, tribunes of praetorian cohorts,
and of two centurions, Maximus Scaurus and Venetus Paulus. But their mainstay,
it was thought, was Faenius Rufus, the commander of the guard, a man of
esteemed life and character, to whom Tigellinus with his brutality and
shamelessness was superior in the emperor's regard. He harassed him with
calumnies, and had often put him in terror by hinting that he had been
Agrippina's paramour, and from sorrow at her loss was intent on vengeance.
And so, when the conspirators were assured by his own repeated language
that the commander of the praetorian guard had come over to their side,
they once more eagerly discussed the time and place of the fatal deed.
It was said that Subrius Flavus had formed a sudden resolution to attack
Nero when singing on the stage, or when his house was in flames and he
was running hither and thither, unattended, in the darkness. In the one
case was the opportunity of solitude; in the other, the very crowd which
would witness so glorious a deed, had roused a singularly noble soul; it
was only the desire of escape, that foe to all great enterprises, which
held him back.

Meanwhile, as they hesitated in prolonged suspense between hope
and fear, a certain Epicharis (how she informed herself is uncertain, as
she had never before had a thought of anything noble) began to stir and
upbraid the conspirators. Wearied at last of their long delay, she endeavoured,
when staying in Campania, to shake the loyalty of the officers of the fleet
at Misenum, and to entangle them in a guilty complicity. She began thus.
There was a captain in the fleet, Volusius Proculus, who had been one of
Nero's instruments in his mother's murder, and had not, as he thought,
been promoted in proportion to the greatness of his crime. Either, as an
old acquaintance of the woman, or on the strength of a recent intimacy,
he divulged to her his services to Nero and their barren result to himself,
adding complaints, and his determination to have vengeance, should the
chance arise. He thus inspired the hope that he could be persuaded, and
could secure many others. No small help was to be found in the fleet, and
there would be numerous opportunities, as Nero delighted in frequent enjoyment
of the sea off Puteoli and Misenum.

Epicharis accordingly said more, and began the history of all the
emperor's crimes. "The Senate," she affirmed, "had no power left it; yet
means had been provided whereby he might pay the penalty of having destroyed
the State. Only let Proculus gird himself to do his part and bring over
to their side his bravest soldiers, and then look for an adequate recompense."
The conspirators' names, however, she withheld. Consequently the information
of Proculus was useless, even though he reported what he had heard to Nero.
For Epicharis being summoned and confronted with the informer easily silenced
him, unsupported as he was by a single witness. But she was herself detained
in custody, for Nero suspected that even what was not proved to be true,
was not wholly false.

The conspirators, however, alarmed by the fear of disclosure, resolved
to hurry on the assassination at Baiae, in Piso's villa, whither the emperor,
charmed by its loveliness, often went, and where, unguarded and without
the cumbrous grandeur of his rank, he would enjoy the bath and the banquet.
But Piso refused, alleging the odium of an act which would stain with an
emperor's blood, however bad he might be, the sanctity of the hospitable
board and the deities who preside over it. "Better," he said, "in the capital,
in that hateful mansion which was piled up with the plunder of the citizens,
or in public, to accomplish what on the State's behalf they had
undertaken."

So he said openly, with however a secret apprehension that Lucius
Silanus might, on the strength of his distinguished rank and the teachings
of Caius Cassius, under whom he had been trained, aspire to any greatness
and seize an empire, which would be promptly offered him by all who had
no part in the conspiracy, and who would pity Nero as the victim of a crime.
Many thought that Piso shunned also the enterprising spirit of Vestinus,
the consul, who might, he feared, rise up in the cause of freedom, or,
by choosing another emperor, make the State his own gift. Vestinus, indeed,
had no share in the conspiracy, though Nero on that charge gratified an
old resentment against an innocent man.

At last they decided to carry out their design on that day of the
circus games, which is celebrated in honour of Ceres, as the emperor, who
seldom went out, and shut himself up in his house or gardens, used to go
to the entertainments of the circus, and access to him was the easier from
his keen enjoyment of the spectacle. They had so arranged the order of
the plot, that Lateranus was to throw himself at the prince's knees in
earnest entreaty, apparently craving relief for his private necessities,
and, being a man of strong nerve and huge frame, hurl him to the ground
and hold him down. When he was prostrate and powerless, the tribunes and
centurions and all the others who had sufficient daring were to rush up
and do the murder, the first blow being claimed by Scaevinus, who had taken
a dagger from the Temple of Safety, or, according to another account, from
that of Fortune, in the town of Ferentum, and used to wear the weapon as
though dedicated to some noble deed. Piso, meanwhile, was wait in the sanctuary
of Ceres, whence he was to be summoned by Faenius, the commander of the
guard, and by the others, and then conveyed into the camp, accompanied
by Antonia, the daughter of Claudius Caesar, with a view to evoke the people's
enthusiasm. So it is related by Caius Pliny. Handed down from whatever
source, I had no intention of suppressing it, however absurd it may seem,
either that Antonia should have lent her name at her life's peril to a
hopeless project, or that Piso, with his well-known affection for his wife,
should have pledged himself to another marriage, but for the fact that
the lust of dominion inflames the heart more than any other
passion.

It was however wonderful how among people of different class, rank,
age, sex, among rich and poor, everything was kept in secrecy till betrayal
began from the house of Scaevinus. The day before the treacherous attempt,
after a long conversation with Antonius Natalis, Scaevinus returned home,
sealed his will, and, drawing from its sheath the dagger of which I have
already spoken, and complaining that it was blunted from long disuse, he
ordered it to be sharpened on a stone to a keen and bright point. This
task he assigned to his freedman Milichus. At the same time sat down to
a more than usually sumptuous banquet, and gave his favourite slaves their
freedom, and money to others. He was himself depressed, and evidently in
profound thought, though he affected gaiety in desultory conversation.
Last of all, he directed ligatures for wounds and the means of stanching
blood to be prepared by the same Milichus, who either knew of the conspiracy
and was faithful up to this point, or was in complete ignorance and then
first caught suspicions, as most authors have inferred from what followed.
For when his servile imagination dwelt on the rewards of perfidy, and he
saw before him at the same moment boundless wealth and power, conscience
and care for his patron's life, together with the remembrance of the freedom
he had received, fled from him. From his wife, too, he had adopted a womanly
and yet baser suggestion; for she even held over him a dreadful thought,
that many had been present, both freedmen and slaves, who had seen what
he had; that one man's silence would be useless, whereas the rewards would
be for him alone who was first with the information.

Accordingly at daybreak Milichus went to the Servilian gardens,
and, finding the doors shut against him, said again and again that he was
the bearer of important and alarming news. Upon this he was conducted by
the gatekeepers to one of Nero's freedmen, Epaphroditus, and by him to
Nero, whom he informed of the urgent danger, of the formidable conspiracy,
and of all else which he had heard or inferred. He showed him too the weapon
prepared for his destruction, and bade him summon the
accused.

Scaevinus on being arrested by the soldiers began his defence with
the reply that the dagger about which he was accused, had of old been regarded
with a religious sentiment by his ancestors, that it had been kept in his
chamber, and been stolen by a trick of his freedman. He had often, he said,
signed his will without heeding the observance of particular days, and
had previously given presents of money as well as freedom to some of his
slaves, only on this occasion he gave more freely, because, as his means
were now impoverished and his creditors were pressing him, he distrusted
the validity of his will. Certainly his table had always been profusely
furnished, and his life luxurious, such as rigid censors would hardly approve.
As to the bandages for wounds, none had been prepared at his order, but
as all the man's other charges were absurd, he added an accusation in which
he might make himself alike informer and witness.

He backed up his words by an air of resolution. Turning on his
accuser, he denounced him as an infamous and depraved wretch, with so fearless
a voice and look that the information was beginning to collapse, when Milichus
was reminded by his wife that Antonious Natalis had had a long secret conversation
with Scaevinus, and that both were Piso's intimate friends.

Natalis was therefore summoned, and they were separately asked
what the conversation was, and what was its subject. Then a suspicion arose
because their answers did not agree, and they were both put in irons. They
could not endure the sight and the threat of torture. Natalis however,
taking the initiative, knowing as he did more of the whole conspiracy,
and being also more practised in accusing, first confessed about Piso,
next added the name of Annaeus Seneca, either as having been a messenger
between him and Piso, or to win the favour of Nero, who hated Seneca and
sought every means for his ruin. Then Scaevinus too, when he knew the disclosure
of Natalis, with like pusillanimity, or under the impression that everything
now divulged, and that there could be no advantage in silence, revealed
the other conspirators. Of these, Lucanus, Quintianus, and Senecio long
persisted in denial; after a time, when bribed by the promise of impunity,
anxious to excuse their reluctance, Lucanus named his mother Atilla, Quintianus
and Senecio, their chief friends, respectively, Glitius Gallus and Annius
Pollio.

Nero, meanwhile, remembering that Epicharis was in custody on the
information of Volusius Proculus, and assuming that a woman's frame must
be unequal to the agony, ordered her to be torn on the rack. But neither
the scourge nor fire, nor the fury of the men as they increased the torture
that they might not be a woman's scorn, overcame her positive denial of
the charge. Thus the first day's inquiry was futile. On the morrow, as
she was being dragged back on a chair to the same torments (for with her
limbs all dislocated she could not stand), she tied a band, which she had
stript off her bosom, in a sort of noose to the arched back of the chair,
put her neck in it, and then straining with the whole weight of her body,
wrung out of her frame its little remaining breath. All the nobler was
the example set by a freedwoman at such a crisis in screening strangers
and those whom she hardly knew, when freeborn men, Roman knights, and senators,
yet unscathed by torture, betrayed, every one, his dearest kinsfolk. For
even Lucanus and Senecio and Quintianus failed not to reveal their accomplices
indiscriminately, and Nero was more and more alarmed, though he had fenced
his person with a largely augmented guard.

Even Rome itself he put, so to say, under custody, garrisoning
its walls with companies of soldiers and occupying with troops the coast
and the river-banks. Incessantly were there flying through the public places,
through private houses, country fields, and the neighbouring villages,
horse and foot soldiers, mixed with Germans, whom the emperor trusted as
being foreigners. In long succession, troops of prisoners in chains were
dragged along and stood at the gates of his gardens. When they entered
to plead their cause, a smile of joy on any of the conspirators, a casual
conversation, a sudden meeting, or the fact of having entered a banquet
or a public show in company, was construed into a crime, while to the savage
questionings of Nero and Tigellinus were added the violent menaces of Faenius
Rufus, who had not yet been named by the informers, but who, to get the
credit of complete ignorance, frowned fiercely on his accomplices. When
Subius Flavus at his side asked him by a sign whether he should draw his
sword in the middle of the trial and perpetrate the fatal deed, Rufus refused,
and checked the man's impulse as he was putting his hand to his
sword-hilt.

Some there were who, as soon as the conspiracy was betrayed, urged
Piso, while Milichus' story was being heard, and Scaevinus was hesitating,
to go to the camp or mount the Rostra and test the feelings of the soldiers
and of the people. "If," said they, "your accomplices join your enterprise,
those also who are yet undecided, will follow, and great will be the fame
of the movement once started, and this in any new scheme is all-powerful.
Against it Nero has taken no precaution. Even brave men are dismayed by
sudden perils; far less will that stageplayer, with Tigellinus forsooth
and his concubines in his train, raise arms against you. Many things are
accomplished on trial which cowards think arduous. It is vain to expect
secrecy and fidelity from the varying tempers and bodily constitutions
of such a host of accomplices. Torture or reward can overcome everything.
Men will soon come to put you also in chains and inflict on you an ignominious
death. How much more gloriously will you die while you cling to the State
and invoke aid for liberty. Rather let the soldiers fail, the people be
traitors, provided that you, if prematurely robbed of life, justify your
death to your ancestors and descendants."

Unmoved by these considerations, Piso showed himself a few moments
in public, then sought the retirement of his house, and there fortified
his spirit against the worst, till a troop of soldiers arrived, raw recruits,
or men recently enlisted, whom Nero had selected, because he was afraid
of the veterans, imbued, though they were, with a liking for him. Piso
expired by having the veins in his arms severed. His will, full of loathsome
flatteries of Nero, was a concession to his love of his wife, a base woman,
with only a beautiful person to recom